Monday, October 31, 2016

Why You Should Meditate on a Plane (and How to Do It)

There's a whole host of ways (VR included) to meditate among the stressors of air travel.

Seat assignments that leave you too-close-for-comfort to your neighbor, germ-infested cabins, the sounds of crying babies: Air travel isn’t exactly what most would call a meditative experience. But while there’s a common misconception that meditation means sitting cross-legged on the floor in a state of not thinking, says Doron Libshtein, founder of the Mentors Channel, meditating on a plane doesn't need to be an oxymoron.

According to Tina Chadda, a psychiatrist and founder of Akasha Meditation, tuning into all of the factors that irritate you—a loud seatmate or a long delay—can be an exercise in mindfulness in itself. Even better, the overall trend emerging from in-flight initiatives is that airlines (finally) are becoming more sophisticated when it comes to catering to a passenger’s emotional needs, moving beyond functional elements such as in-flight entertainment to create an experience that differentiates them from the competition, says Raymond Kollau, founder of airline innovation agency AirlineTrends.

While some airlines, like Virgin America, have been offering in-flight meditation guides since 2011; others are breaking new ground in the space. Take Air New Zealand's 'Virtual Flight Lab,’ for example. Created to show visitors of the airline's 75th anniversary exhibition how the in-flight experience could be radically reimagined via virtual reality, it opens a whole new realm of possibilities: Passengers would be provided with VR headsets that could create a tranquil mini-universe via sights, sounds, and smell, Kollau says. Meanwhile, Boeing wants to project calming images mimicking the time of day onto the interior of the plane to help passengers relax, sleep better, and enjoy some virtual stargazing. (MORE)